HP to embrace Android for its tablets, pretend WebOS never happened

Upcoming HP tablets will reportedly run Android on top of Nvidia's Tegra 4 SoC.

The ill-fated HP Touchpad. Will the company's Android tablets find more success?

Casey Johnston

HP's efforts to clean house and resuscitate its business continues: a report from ReadWrite says Hewlett-Packard is planning to re-enter the tablet market at some point this year with an Android-powered device using Nvidia's Tegra 4 system-on-a-chip. This would be HP's first tablet since 2011's HP Touchpad, which was quickly and unceremoniously liquidated and dumped from the company's lineup six weeks after its introduction.

HP's decision to use Android for its new tablet also serves as the last chapter in the long, convoluted story of WebOS, the mobile operating system that HP bought when it acquired Palm in April of 2010 under then-CEO Mark Hurd. Hurd was pushed out of the company in August of that year, and his successor Leo Apotheker was intent on making HP a software and services company. Apotheker's rapid discontinuation of the TouchPad and his confidence-shattering announcement that HP might get rid of its consumer PC business were just two of the reasons why he too was shoved out of the company in favor of current CEO Meg Whitman. Whitman then released WebOS to the open source community, effectively washing HP's hands of the operating system.

By using Android instead of WebOS, HP will at least have a popular operating system that enjoys good (if not always tablet-centric) third-party developer support. However, the company will be going up against stiff competition from the likes of Samsung, Asus, Lenovo, and other PC OEMs that are all trying to grab their own piece of the tablet pie. Dell, one of HP's chief competitors in the PC market, gave up on Android tablets after its Streak lineup failed to leave a mark.

ReadWrite's anonymous sources believe HP may be showing off its tablet or tablets behind closed doors at Mobile World Congress later this month, but the public unveiling would happen at some point afterward. The company is also said to be considering Android-powered smartphones, just not in the near-term.

I have an HP Android tablet, it's excellent. It also uses a very fancy inductive charger, which is probably one of the strongest reasons I haven't considered picking up a more modern android tablet.

If they make their future android tablets touchstone compatible, I might consider one when it comes time to upgrade. Otherwise, I'd never consider it, especially with how nice the Nexus tablet line is, and I doubt Google has intentions to tap HP to make their hardware.

What actually surprised me was when HP paid over a Billion dollars for WebOS in the first place. Why? Even at that time it was obvious that Android was the only way to go*.

*You can't license iOS. Android is the only thing with similar market share. No new platforms are going anywhere. Android is open to all. Already has more than one market (Google, Amazon). Android already has more apps than other minority platforms will ever see. Other minority platforms (*cough* Windows 8 *cough*) may end up adding an Android app compatibility like Blackberry has done.

In short, they want to get out of the crowded, commoditized, low margin, PC business that they dominate to get into the Android tablet market, which is quickly becoming just as crowded, commoditized and low margin, and in which they have no presence and no credibility.That's the kind of out-of-the-box creative thinking that HP needs.

What actually surprised me was when HP paid over a Billion dollars for WebOS in the first place. Why? Even at that time it was obvious that Android was the only way to go*.

*You can't license iOS. Android is the only thing with similar market share. No new platforms are going anywhere. Android is open to all. Already has more than one market (Google, Amazon). Android already has more apps than other minority platforms will ever see. Other minority platforms (*cough* Windows 8 *cough*) may end up adding an Android app compatibility like Blackberry has done.

Based on the vast array of patents they received in the acquisition alone, one could argue that Palm was worth far more than the 1.2B that HP paid for it.

It's interesting that neither the article nor the comments so far (save one reference about marketing budgets) make a single mention of Microsoft here. They literally don't even enter the conversation.

How times have changed.

Edit: DannyB does mention 'Windows' in a parenthetical *cough* remark.

HP really should concentrate not on tablets (why???) but on PC-like all-in-one devices for offices running Android or Chrome OS. There's a HUGE market here that HP is perfectly suited to serve. Just the fact that the usual (Windows/Intel) PC seems to fizzle out does not mean there no need for the role that PCs have.

HP, come up with a 20"-24" ARM-based all-in-one desktop running Android, with Ethernet, DVI/VGA, some USB ports, a small flash drive and a slot for an optional 2.5" HD/SSD for a good price and you will sell lots of these. There are so many desktop PCs these days that not only run hardly more than email and a browser but are also sucking up lots of admin time for locking the things down and backing them up that something like that would be a godsend for many companies.

I think this is a smart move, maybe their WebOS was a good idea when it was created, and now it's just too risky to still supporting that. Let's see if they can produce good stuff with Android, because if they don't, they are doomed. Android is good only in the appropriate hardware, the rest is useless crap (which Android detractors use as examples of bad user experience...).

What actually surprised me was when HP paid over a Billion dollars for WebOS in the first place. Why? Even at that time it was obvious that Android was the only way to go*.

*You can't license iOS. Android is the only thing with similar market share. No new platforms are going anywhere. Android is open to all. Already has more than one market (Google, Amazon). Android already has more apps than other minority platforms will ever see. Other minority platforms (*cough* Windows 8 *cough*) may end up adding an Android app compatibility like Blackberry has done.

Based on the vast array of patents they received in the acquisition alone, one could argue that Palm was worth far more than the 1.2B that HP paid for it.

What have they done to recuperated the $1.2B from these patents? HP is not using these Palm/WebOS patents if they are going with Android. Its not worth anything to them since they abandon it to open source.

In short, they want to get out of the crowded, commoditized, low margin, PC business that they dominate to get into the Android tablet market, which is quickly becoming just as crowded, commoditized and low margin, and in which they have no presence and no credibility.That's the kind of out-of-the-box creative thinking that HP needs.

This may be the most concise summary of corporate stupidity that I've ever seen on Ars. Well said.

But honestly, I always felt that a mobile OS on a tablet was a halfway measure intended to fill the gap until they had enough computing power. The current crop of Windows 8 tablets demonstrates pretty well that we are past that point... well, ok, we'll be past that point next year. I just don't see the appeal of a limited device anymore.

There's a huge market for business tailored tablets. Tablets were popular there long before the iPad, but they've been blown out of the water by the consumer oriented capacitive devices. RIM hopes to regain their throne, but Android has most of the features necessary to compete. Somebody just needs to package it correctly, and deliver it to a large base of customers. I'd say HP is positioned well.

*thinking to myself*Please, just bring Cards to Android! "Recent Apps" is not the same.

In short, they want to get out of the crowded, commoditized, low margin, PC business that they dominate to get into the Android tablet market, which is quickly becoming just as crowded, commoditized and low margin

The alternatives:1) Just give up and shut the whole business down?2) Stick with the *shrinking* PC market until *it* shuts them down?

At least this way they have the potential to continue on with their usual mediocrity?

Really, is there *any* market out there that doesn't have a more competent and established player?

Personally, I think they could potentially do fine if they are still capable of really focussing and applying themselves well enough to create a stellar product for a good price. Remember how HTC was all the rage before Samsung just a few years ago? The position of beloved tech darling could surely shift again.

Andrew Cunningham / Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue.